Ok, funny thing happened on the way to work this morning.

I have a 2008 Alpha with 46K miles and it has been trouble free since acquiring it last fall. The only mods are a K&N Filter, Starr headlights and a better horn. The car started no problems and no weird sounds while I drove to McD's for my morning coffee. I pulled out of the lot no problem (not hard acceleration) and pulled up to a red light... suddenly I got a rough idle, almost stalled. I put it in neutral and gave it some gas. It sputtered but kept running rough. The CE light came on and I got a traction control error. I limped to the dealership, pulled up to the garage door and turned off the car to wait, it would not start again- DOA... the following is the dealership side of the phone call I received this afternoon.

Mr. Sandler, you need a new engine... we don't know what happened but when we opened up the engine to look it was destroyed... I don't know how else to describe it....yes, GM is buying you a new engine...GM will get you a rental car....No, I don't think they will give you a 6.0L... It should take a week or more.... no we can't get a 6.0L faster... yes it will be a new engine and it takes a while to get one here... no I really don't think they will give you a 6.0L, the good thing is that it is a new engine and we will not rebuild yours. Yes, i will ask my regional manager if you can get a 6.0L if you will stop asking me for one (laugh).


So, my engine is wasted. No clues from the dealership, and guesses from the board are welcome.

good news is that this happened prior to the warrant expiring, bad news is that I really needed the truck this weekend.

 

New engine under warranty sounds like a good deal to me and a rental..sucks but.....

 

Weird! Please post up what you find out.

 

Were you going wheeling this weekend? If you were, TAKE THE RENTAL!!! I remember my truck was at the dealer for about two weeks because of "broken parts". They gave me an H3 rental and I was about to head to Rausch creek for a wheeling weekend. I told them that I had my boggers at home and I was going to take the rental off road if I didn't have the truck back by then. I never thought they could have it back together in such a short time. I got a call the next day saying it was ready! You night want to try that one with them and see what they say.

I had a little trouble with my K&N intake when I put it on. The one support rod for the intake tube was putting pressure on the mass air flow sensor and caused it to work out of the tube. Mine did the same exact thing you re describing. It ran rough and the CE light came on too. I wasn't able to make it to the dealer though and I had to get it flat bedded there. Have you cleaned the filter yet? I have heard that if you use too much oil on them, you will foul out the sensor and the truck won't run. Maybe they just didn't want to look at it and decided to help you out. Glad to hear they are taking care of you! You hear a lot of stories about dealers not covering anything under warranty. Make sure you keep those guys happy and they will help you out a lot more than they do now.

 

What is a "destroyed" engine ? No oil, bad bearings, cracked pistons, cracked block ?
Since it is covered under warranty, what do they lose by telling what exactly happened ?
I'm glad you're still in warranty and for the rest of us who still go out for coffee, thanks for scaring us [sic]

 

K&N is roughly 2 months old, it is the panel filter so it is a plug and play. The oil is good and I just changed it 2 months ago... the TEMP was normal.

No wheeling this weekend, just picking up my new (to me) motorcycle or as my wife describes it- another damn project.

I will lyk if I learn more about the engine. Her best guess was it threw a rod and "destroyed" a few cylinders.

 

it sounds similar to what is happening to a guy on another forum... he stopped posting because he has a lawyer involved now... but he had some severe damages...

if you send Peggy your VIN, she might be able to either get you a 6.0l or change the dealerships mind so they make you pay for it....

 

I'm scratching my head over this one. Good thing is a BRAND NEW MOTOR, bad thing is not knowing what caused it or even what they "think" may have happened.

Glad to see that the 5/100K warranty is covering it!

Please keep us informed if you ever get any more info.

 

Update, tho limited information. 3 cylinders were damaged and the current theory is a thrown rod.

 

had to be an '08 Alpha...didn't it....I've only got 19k mi., so I'll be sweat'n for the next 27k